


Cabin in the Snow

by navaan



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Cabin Fic, Dreams, Established Relationship, Fairy Tale Retellings, Ghosts, Horror Elements, M/M, Magic, Mind Control, Protective Steve Rogers, Snowed In, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-18 00:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14201080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: After a mission goes wrong, Steve and Tony get stuck in a strange cabin out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but snow and trees in any direction.





	Cabin in the Snow

**Author's Note:**

> Mild non-consensual kissing not in the main pairing.
> 
> This is a fill for the “Hansel & Gretel” square on my Stony Fairy tale Bingo. Also a fill for my Stony bingo card, "Mission Gone Wrong". It was first published on my [Dreamwidth account here](https://navaan.dreamwidth.org/600991.html).
> 
> An extremely big thank you to the wonderful iberiandoctor for reading this over and all the valuable input!!

“You hate the cold more than I do,” Tony muttered and followed Steve through the snow. He was clad in the black mesh fabric of the under armor and Steve had pressed him into wearing Steve’s brown trench-coat.

“I'm also a super soldier, Tony. I can survive the cold. It's been tried and tested.”

The comment shut Tony up for a while as they silently pushed through the snow. Steve felt bad for it, because he knew Tony worried about him. But Tony also had a way of not worrying enough about himself. 

“I used to love that sound as a kid,” Tony said, his teeth chattering. “The sound fresh snow makes when you step into it.”

Steve smiled at him over his shoulder. “I can see the shack you mentioned. It's hidden by the trees. We'll be there in a minute.”

“Oh thank god.” Tony threw up his arms and tried to keep up with Steve's pace. “I still don't know how this could've happened – the Quinjet crashing and us ending up here. Wherever here is I don't even know where we are? None of the instruments seem to be working.”

“Don't worry. The Quinjet took a bad hit, but the Avengers will be able to track it. They'll come for us.”

“I'd feel better if the the Quinjet's heating was working. Or the armor.” He could _hear_ Tony roll his eyes. 

“Sorry,” Steve said and tried not to smile. The cold was seeping into his bones, but Tony's exasperation at AIM nearly melting the armor off his body today was a sort of normal that put his mind at ease and warmed his soul. When someone got to his tech, Tony always took it personally. “You'll get back at them and they won't know what hit them, Shellhead.”

“Oh, yes, I will,” Tony promised. Possibly he had a plan for it already.

The cabin was in view now. It looked uninhabited and old, but terribly inviting in the icy cold of winter.

Steve had no trouble pushing in the shaky wooden door. It didn't seem like anyone had used the cabin in a long time. The lock gave with just one hard shove and he was glad that the door frame didn't just fall apart on them. The the place wouldn't be much use to them without a door.

With heavy feet they brought snow with them into the scarcely furnished living room, that was charmingly quaint with an old fashioned sofa and some fur rugs in front of a fireplace which looked like it hadn't seen a fire in ages. The open room led right into the kitchen that was a strange mix of 70's household electronics and 50's style. Some pieces of furniture seemed even older.

“Ehm, wow, that is a very dusty iron stove in the corner. I hope it's not the only source of heating. Hunter's cabin?” Tony wondered aloud, pointing at the deer heads adorning one side of the wall, then saw the rugs and the fireplace. “Or lover's nest?” 

He wriggled his eyebrows.

Steve huffed. 

“Right,” Tony said. “Would be furnished a little more tastefully if it were.”

“If it were yours, yes,” Steve agreed and grinned.

“Ours,” Tony mouthed silently. After a further inspection of the room, he asked: “How good do you think our chances are that there's a working hot water boiler?” 

“I'm sure you can make it work if there is one.”

Steve pulled the door closed firmly and pulled Tony into an embrace, before Tony could rush off to explore the adjoining rooms. Now that the danger was past – at least for the moment – he could allow himself to just be glad that Tony was unharmed and alive and that there had indeed been this cabin to find shelter in for the time being. Tony leaned up to kiss him readily. Their lips were cold, but their bodies warmed with the touch. 

“Let's see if there's a way to heat this place up,” Steve suggested, but didn't let Tony step out of his grasp.

“Oh,” Tony said and grinned broadly, “I have some ideas on heating things up.”

“Always up for that. But let's make sure we don't die out here first. I'm really not fond of the cold.”

* * *

The plumbing was about to give out and Tony voiced his concerns about it. “I wonder if whoever owns this cabin hasn't just abandoned it,” he remarked and set about to repair the shower.

Feeling self conscious, but knowing that their survival might depend on it, Steve went through the cupboards in the kitchen. No dust had settled there and the cupboards were fully stocked with canned and nonperishable food. Something about that seemed off, but he could place his finger on it. “Whoever used to come out here was prepared to sit out a blizzard. At least we won't have to starve if we can't get the Quinjet back up and running.”

“What language is on the cans?” Tony asked immediately, interested. 

Steve blinked. “English.” 

“So we're where? Canada? Alaska?”

He couldn't answer it. All navigational systems had failed them. But wasn't it strange that they had so completely lost their way? In a Tony Stark built jet?

“I don't know,” he admitted – and even weirder – the cans didn't give a hint either. Something about that made the hairs on the back of his arms stand on end. They truly had no idea where they had ended up and everything here suggested that they might be stuck here alone in the woods until the Avengers came for them.

But why was there so much food if nobody had been here in years?

“That stove is...” Tony contemplated the iron thing in the corner again and then looked at Steve. “Sorry, I'm not sure what it is about the thing, but it looks out of place.”

“You just hate old-fashioned things.” But Steve looked over and had to admit that the stove took up all that space in an otherwise modernized kitchen was strange and off-putting. The placement seemed wrong and deliberate at the same time.

“Not true! I love _you_.”

He smiled at Tony then. At least they were together. Steve wasn't sure how well he'd taken to being stranded alone out here in the cold.

Meticulously he went through the rest of the cabin. There were two small bedrooms. One was a dark windowless room with a big bed, the other nicely furnished and inviting. They would be better off just lounging in the living room though, close to the fire. 

He went through the closets and drawers and gathered clothes that might fit him and Tony. He was surprised that while there were some items of clothing that seemed to be meant for a woman of average height, most everything else seemed to be the exact sizes he needed. He picked out some plaid shirts and tees, and found comfortable pants to go with them. He piled everything up on the kitchen table and found Tony there on his knees, taking apart the kitchen with a tool box he'd found somewhere. 

“Don't worry,” Tony mumbled tiredly as he reconnected the stove, “this should be an easy fix too.”

“If you say so.” Right now it looked like Tony was rebuilding every piece of household electronics. But he was the expert and he preferred to be busy. Steve left him to his work.

They needed to get out of their wet clothes next though. 

Gathering blankets from the bedrooms and dumping them in a stack on the narrow sofa, he set about to get a fire going in the small fireplace.

To his unending relief he found the chimney wasn't blocked and the fireplace was in good condition. It took him a bit of time to find everything. The stacked wood looked too old for a good fire, but after he actually got to it he was surprised to find it was just right. “Tony,” he called. “Come here. Get warm.”

“Wow,” Tony said softly, as he let himself sink down on one of the rugs beside Steve. He looked exhausted. “I have good news too. We have water. We have hot water for one shower. We have a mostly working kitchen. There'll be warm food.”

“And whoever owns this place probably owes you a maintenance fee.”

“I'll take a bit of freeloading for my services.”

The flames danced merrily over the blocks of wood. Steve wondered how long they could hold out here.

“I can get the heating in order tomorrow if we need it.”

“Okay,” he said, unable to look away from the fire. It was such a relief to be warm after the cold. “Let's make use of that one shower.”

Tony chuckled. “I thought you'd never ask.”

* * *

The slept curled up together under the borrowed blankets in their borrowed clothes in front of the fireplace on the rugs.

When Steve woke, the fire had nearly burned out, but the place seemed... different. The heating worked. “Tony?” 

Tony stirred and groggily looked around. “Did we clean this place in our sleep?” he asked.

“That's unlikely.” But it was cleaner and warmer. Steve had never believed in ghosts. But something strange was going on here.

* * *

He tried to ignore the nervous feeling that settled over him until Tony scowled at the equipment they'd brought with them from the Quinjet. Tony had dressed in a soft flannel shirt and taken up room on the kitchen floor to work again as if that was his little workshop space now.

Steve didn't like that they were getting used to this place.

“What are we looking at?”

“Everything that should tell us where we are is going crazy. I've been trying a damn compass like these are the Dark Ages.” Tony showed him the needle dancing around frantically with a deep frown.

That seemed wrong. Steve was beginning to share Tony's misgivings about the failing tech. “Where the hell are we, Tony?”

“Not the Bermuda triangle,” Tony answered and pecked him on the lips. “There'd be more water. But I can tell you if I can't contact anyone outside this place, I'm beginning to doubt anyone can track us here. We're on our own.”

It was too early to worry, Steve told himself.

They'd been here for barely 24 hours.

* * *

Tony repaired the stove and generator. Then Steve made him stop, while he started to put a meal together from the different cans.

“Steve?” 

He turned to see Tony in his too big red flannel shirt and jeans standing by the window watching the snow with his arms folded in front of his chest. “Come here for a moment.”

He abandoned the beans he was warming up to find out what it was Tony was watching. But there was nothing but a glistening white of fresh snow and trees in all directions. No movement.

No tracks.

“It snowed again.”

“Looks like it. Our tracks are gone.”

Yes, Tony was right and...

“The trees. I can't for the life of me tell you from what direction we came.” Tony met his eyes with a worried frown.

What the hell was going on here?

* * *

That night he dreamed. A woman told him to cut a tree and get new logs for the fireplace. He never really got a sense of her looks, but he knew she belonged here.

She caressed Tony's cheek while he made up the beds and then sat docile on a chair and watched as Steve got a meal together.

“He'll need his strength,” the woman explained and kissed Tony's brow as if Steve wasn't there at all. “He needs to eat.”

* * *

He woke up exhausted.

Tony looked slightly more rested, but there was a worry line forming around his mouth. “I don't know why,” he said and snuggled into Steve's embrace, “but I want out of here. Is this cabin fever?”

Steve brushed a kiss against the top of his head. “Whatever it is, - I want out too. I'm getting tired of staring out at the snow.”

He didn't tell Tony about the dreams. They were both worried enough as it was.

* * *

He dreamed of the woman again and knew immediately it was a dream, but he had no recollection of going to bed. This time he could see her clearly. And without knowing why he realized she looked healthier, more real, than last time. She wore a nice dress – one of the flowery dresses he'd seen in the closest - and had her long black hair done up in a lush ponytail. The cabin smelled of smoke and spices and the thick odor of it made it hard to breathe. 

This time she was sitting on the bed in the beautiful bedroom and Tony's head rested in her lap. 

“He's so useful,” she said to Steve, as if they were continuing a conversation they'd had previously. “He builds and repairs.”

She leaned down to kiss Tony on the lips, and to his dread, Steve realized he couldn't move although he wanted to. He wanted nothing more than to get up from his chair in the kitchen and walk into the bedroom to shake Tony out of the spell. Because Tony wasn't moving or resisting the kiss.

“And you'll sustain me for a while. He'll be sad when you waste away, but he'll forget. They all do after a while.”

Her distant voice was like the icy cold of the snow outside. 

Then she laughed. 

“Get up, my love,” she said. “Make breakfast for dear Steve. He needs his strength. _I_ need his strength. You want me to be happy, don't you?”

And as if he was charmed, Tony got up and moved into the kitchen.

“He's so useful,” the woman repeated and her eyes were shining like cold diamonds. “I'll keep him for a while longer. Your strength will keep me strong for a long time. No need to waste him now.”

She swiped a hand along her mouth as if she'd taken a bite out of Steve and he could feel another ounce of his strength drain away.

* * *

“Tony!” he shouted when he woke up, coming into a sitting position. It gave him a good look of the room. 

There were plates on the table in the same places where they had left them in the dream. There was a box of tools that Tony had used to repair the heating in the bedroom - _in the dream_. 

Tony woke beside him, the air of exhaustion clinging to him.

“I had the strangest dream,” Tony said and then looked up at Steve. “What's wrong? Steve? You look exhausted and...” When he saw the table he stopped. “How?”

Steve's eyes narrowed. “We're leaving.”

But where would they go? They had no idea where they even were, no idea how to get back to the Quinjet.

“This is real, isn't it? She's real?” Tony watched him wide-eyed as he finally understood what Steve hadn't said yet. It all came to him in a rush. “Fucking magic, is it? She's keeping us here. God, Steve, I hate magic. And... She's draining you, isn't she? We need to get out of here.”

Steve grabbed his shoulders, pulled him into a hug and kissed him, remembering the way the woman had kissed Tony in the not-dream. He would be damned if he let her have him. Then he held Tony's gaze and said with a calm he didn't feel: “We're leaving.”

They put away their clothes; he slipped back into the Captain America uniform and Tony his under armor. The changing of clothes seemed significant. They were going to leave this damn place behind – go back to who they were and what they did. 

The door didn't want to open to them this time. Steve threw his whole weight against it two times, three... until it finally gave out and opened to the cold outside, gusts of wind driving in snow, making the warm room seem like the only sane place to stay.

But it wasn't.

“You can't leave,” the woman's voice said from behind him and when he turned around she smiled at him from her place in the kitchen with the most benevolent and caring expression, beckoning them like children. 

Steve swallowed. It was the first time that he was seeing her outside the dreams, although it seemed that she had no body here. She drifted, vanished and then the translucent form of the woman appeared in the doorway in front of them, blocking their way. She was beautiful but in a monstrous way. She was too pale, too perfect; old eyes in a young face. And then she laughed. It was a terrible sound, it set free the hunger in her eyes and the beauty bled from her form.

“Stay,” she whispered, kindly.

“No,” Steve spat. He was very much done with this.

Sweetly she explained: “The house has blocked all the ways. You'll end up back here every time. You'll die out there. Come, come, stay in the warmth with me. You need me. Come, let me care for you. There’s nowhere else. The house is safe. The house will keep you here.”

“What,” Tony said softly to Steve, “if there's no house?” 

They shared one glance.

“No,” she ordered, realizing that whatever spell she’d tried to weave must have failed. “You belong to me. Both of you.”

But whatever gave her power over them when they were asleep, it had not yet given her full control over them when they were awake, although Steve could feel her order pull on his muscles, as she tried to force his body to do her bidding. 

He smiled at Tony, who had stepped through the door already and was standing in the snow, jaw set and shivering. Proud Steve turned to the entity and said: “I'm sorry, ma'am, although not as much as you want me to be. Tony, we're burning down this house.”

Tony nodded with a wide grin. “I had so hoped you'd say that. I filled up the generator just last night. Aren’t we lucky?”

* * *

After the spell was broken finding the Quinjet was easy. It had touched down in a clearing very close to the cabin and suddenly it seemed they knew exactly where to go. They could still see the flames consuming the house when they took off.

“Do you think this was the end of... whatever she was?”

“Who knows,” Tony said. “I'm not an expert on ghosts.”

Steve reached over to squeeze his fingers. “We're going home.”

“Finally!!” Tony moaned and then kissed him. “Get us home, please. Let's never have a vacation like this ever again.” He was halfway out of his seat again, leaving the controls to Steve while he went and gathered the parts of his broken and partly melted armor, looking like a father who’d been separated from his child for too long. 

Steve laughed, some of the uneasiness falling away finally. In front of his eyes the systems showed him the coordinates and with on easy push of a button they were set for home. 

“Lost in the woods caught by a witch in a scary cabin,” Tony muttered. “It wasn’t even made of gingerbread.”

“That’s your major disappointment?”

“No,” he said simply and caught Steve’s eyes. Somewhere he had found a screwdriver and his hands were busy with one of the gauntlets. But now he held Steve’s gaze. “I know we’re bad at this, but let’s go on holiday. Real dream vacation without having your life force sucked out in your sleep.”

Steve liked the sound of that. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do that.”

They were still here - AIM and weird supernatural forces be damned. Together, they’d always be a match for any adversary, even if it was a life-force-sucking witch from some fairy tale.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me for fic updates on [tumblr](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/navaanwrites). This fic has a post on the tumblr [here](https://navaanwrites.tumblr.com/post/172562910899/cabin-in-the-snow-navaan-marvel-616-archive) in case you want to share it. It also has a page on my [Dreamwidth](https://navaan.dreamwidth.org/600991.html).


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